As innovation in food production increases to meet the demands of sustainability and increasing populations, early evaluation of potential novel foods is essential.The theory of planned behavior posits that intention to perform a behavior is correlated to actual behavior in an extension to the theory of reasoned action where behavioral and normative beliefs are reported to contribute to attitudes toward a behavior, and subjective beliefs form through perceptions of societal norms regarding that behavior Cognitive evaluations of these attitudes and beliefs contribute to consumers’ intention to perform the behavior themselves. Expanding on this, TPB includes volitional control as an additional consideration, reporting that people must have a perception of control over the behavior if the intention is to be realized as actual behavior . Several hundred studies have applied TPB within a variety of disciplines with accuracy and the utility of the theory in the evaluation of novel food acceptance has been supported by experimental validation of the intention–behavior relationship . A review of 42 studies employing TPB as a measure of intent to consume a discrete food while evaluating the intention–behavior relationship reported a strong association overall between intention to consume and actual consumer behavior.
There is currently no standardized psychometric instrument available that is appropriate for capturing the unique associations attributed to a discrete novel food within a TPB framework. Consistent with previous novel food research this study has developed a fit-for-purpose scale for use in the study. Examination of currently available literature did not discover adequate research on consumer perceptions and attitudes toward hemp food to enable the development of the TPB items without consumer consultation. As a result, a mixed-method approach as described by Teddlie and Tashakkori was adopted for the project which was conducted under a pragmatic framework. While pragmatism is more of a philosophical framework than a methodology, it allows for the methodology appropriate to each phase to be applied and a re-evaluation of the findings from each to form meta-inferences beyond those yielded from the findings within each phase. The first phase consisted of semi-structured interviews which informed the development of TPB items, and the second phase employed the TPB items in a questionnaire that was disseminated online nationally to evaluate consumer acceptance of hemp food in the Australian market. However, it was difficult to discern how much of this belief was the result of internet browsing by the participant before the interview. None of the participants reported knowing that hemp food had been legalized in Australia prior to the hearing of our study and was not able to specify particular health benefits.
Where participants confessed to having only read of the health benefits on the internet prior to the interview their response was recorded as knowledge rather than subjective belief. Some participants, however, associated hemp food with medicinal cannabis, also known as cannabidiol oil, and made the association of health benefifits based on that. Four items were developed relating to this theme which reflected the positively perceived attributes of hemp food. “Eating hemp food is healthy; Eating hemp food would make a person feel more relaxed; Eating hemp food would likely reduce anxiety; There are many benefits to eating hemp food” Participants rated each statement on how much they agreed with them. Response items were developed as a collaborative exercise between researchers to reflect the TPB constructs of behavioral and normative beliefs and perceived control as described in .Previous studies using TPB have found positive and negative attitudes toward novel food to have differential influence on their acceptance, leading to occasion for evaluation of the oppositely polarized viewpoints as a discrete entity.
For example, found negative attitudes toward insect-eating behavior to be a significant barrier to insect consumption after perceived control and food neophobia. Measuring disgust as it applies specifically toward insect-eating behavior and evaluating this construct within a negative behavioral belief paradigm might have provided clearer insight into attitudes toward eating insects. While not using TPB as the theoretical framework per se, reported that negative perception of factors related to genetically modified foods were critical to acceptance. It has previously been suggested that highly salient negative factors relating to hemp food’s association with alternate uses for cannabis have a greater influence on early acceptance and uptake of the novel food than positive health benefits .